WOW! Women On Writing | Workshops & Classes | Quarterly Contests | The Muffin

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The holiday season is officially upon us! If you’re like me, this time can bring about mixed feelings. While I love getting extra time to unwind with my husband and two kids, my mother’s side of the family lives a 22-hour drive away from us and we don’t always get to see them. And did I mention that I’m an only child? This means no siblings to coordinate holidays with on my side. Because of this, we often take little mini adventures in the week between Christmas and the New Year. One year we went to Texas to visit my mom and took a road trip to San Antonio for a few days. Another year, we took snowy trip to Asheville, N.C. on New Year’s Eve to visit The Biltmore Estate and had quite the harrowing bus ride up the mountain to the mansion due to an unexpected snowstorm.

To help decompress during the holidays, I like to turn on the holiday specials on the Hallmark Channel or Amazon Prime. They are formulaic, but they are also good old-fashioned fun, and I can’t get over the elaborate sets with Christmas trees, mountains of (faux) snow, and Pinterest-worthy houses. Have you noticed a lot of them feature storylines with writers? I watched one called Christmas in Dollywood, where an event planner goes back to her hometown of Tennessee to plan an event at the theme park, and (spoiler alert!) revisits her dream of becoming a children’s author. In another movie, a group of townspeople goes on a search to find a rumored Christmas time capsule, and a skeptical writer arrives to get the inside scoop on the story. We usually have fun with these movies, and a favorite pastime is to create our own plotlines for the perfect script.

- A trip to a local Christmas tree farm or ice-skating rink. Marvel at the glorious scent of pine trees or lace up your ice skates. If there’s snow on the ground when you do this, consider it a bonus!

- Recreate or participate in a favorite tradition. Have a cookie swap, invite friends and family who aren’t traveling to stop by for hot cocoa, appetizers, and/or maybe a cocktail or two! Share your stories and treasured memories together.

- The chance to remember your dreams. This is important. Do you have a book or magazine article/essay idea you’ve always wanted to explore? Maybe now is the time to write about a disastrous holiday meal you tried to cook, a collection of family recipes, or an adventure or trip that went sideways. Shake a snow globe, take advantage of the magic of the season and get writing!

A quick look at Off Topic Publishing’s website shows you they have a lot of plates in the air:

• a monthly contest that cycles between fiction, nonfiction, and poetry;

• a monthly poetry box, which sees a selected poem printed on postcards and delivered to subscribers alongside a square of artisan chocolate and a selection of specialty tea;

• chapbook and anthology printing, marketing, and distribution;

• a thriving Facebook group; and most recently,

• writers’ conferences and retreats

It’s hard to believe this literary juggernaut is run from the side of two very busy women’s plates! Both Jennifer Mariani and Marion Lougheed are writers with jobs and lives outside of Off Topic. They make the time for Off Topic because they have an important mission in mind: to celebrate good writing and forge a community of readers and storytellers. Everything Off Topic does is towards that end—and I should know, I’ve submitted to them countless times, and have even been successful with a few, including my short story, “Where We Have to Go” and my creative nonfiction piece, “Casting for Meaning.” I’m a proud member of the Off Topic family.

So, I was delighted for the opportunity to sit down with Editor-in-Chief, Marion Lougheed, to talk all things publishing on behalf of WOW!

WOW: Hi Marion, thanks so much for joining us! I love Off Topic Publishing and its many and varied initiatives. Can you tell us a bit about how Off Topic started, and how it has evolved over time? 

Marion: I started Off Topic as an online monthly magazine and my original idea was to create a co-op publisher. There would still be a submission and vetting process to ensure quality, but only people who were members of the co-op could submit. That didn’t work out because I didn’t know what I was doing, so I ran it as a normal online magazine for a year. While I did end up publishing some amazing work, it was hard to get strong submissions every single month. I didn’t know how to raise awareness. I was also paying people out of my own pocket and not making any income, so it was financially unsustainable. After a year, I ended the project.

Later, during the era of COVID, I joined a Facebook group run by CBC Books for writers across Canada. Some of us got talking and I suggested running a monthly contest. That gave me the quality work to publish every month and a way to give out good prize money to the winner. From there, Off Topic grew and I eventually ran some open calls for anthologies and chapbooks. I also solicited a chapbook from Jennifer Mariani (All Forgotten Now), whose work I had read. She ended up joining the Off Topic team after that as a production manager. More recently, we’ve signed Finnian Burnett for a novella-in-flash called The Price of Cookies, which I’m very excited about!

WOW: A monthly contest, anthologies, chapbooks, novellas-in-flash—these are all very different directions. Where do all your ideas come from and how do you decide which projects and initiatives to pursue?

Marion: Hmm, where do ideas come from? I think people have been trying to figure that out since the dawn of time! In all seriousness, for Off Topic most of my ideas come from encounters with other writers or artists. I started an anthology project based around a music album called Wayward & Upward, by Spinoza Gambit, because I love when different art forms intersect and influence each other (like Kandinsky drawing on music theory to create visual art!). Other thematic calls are based on topics I would like to read about or that have some widespread appeal or relatability (home, exhaustion...). I like themes that are complex or multifaceted, so I can bring together work that challenges a single narrative or viewpoint (this may be because I’m also an anthropologist and I love exploring the wide array of human experiences). The charity project for Ukraine came out of a conversation with a copywriter I know who is of Ukrainian descent. And then sometimes I just read a writer's work, like with Jennifer or Finnian, and I approach them to see if they have something I could publish. Long story short (short story long?), I stumble into my ideas.

WOW: That is often the way for writers—we stumble into ideas for our work from experiences or thoughts we have—I guess it’s the same for publishing. Perhaps the most intriguing/unique element of Off Topic is your monthly poetry subscription box—can you tell us how that came about and how folks can get involved with that?

Marion: The Poetry Box was actually Jennifer's idea. We were talking about her chapbook, and she said how it would be cool to have a physical card or gift box with poetry on it to send out to people. She did all the legwork of finding a local organic tea vendor and an artisanal oatmilk chocolate vendor, etc. There’s no way the Poetry Box would exist without her. As the editor, I vet the submissions and choose one each month (which is hard, since there are so many excellent poems). I also find the artwork and design the cards. Then I send the design to a printer in Calgary. Jennifer packages them up with the tea and chocolate and mails them out to our subscribers. A lot of people purchase our 3-month option as a gift for a loved one or a treat for themselves, but you can also subscribe monthly or yearly. All the information, including how to submit and how to subscribe to this treat, is on our website at www.offtopicpublishing.com/poetrybox.

WOW: Subscription boxes are so popular right now—I love that you turned it on its head and customized it to writers and writing! But debatably the monthly contest is what Off Topic is most known for. It’s been a fixture for the past year and a half. How has it grown and changed? Have you noticed anything about the entries that win along the way?

Marion: The Off Topic Contest started exclusively for members of Canada Writes, the Facebook group I mentioned before. At first, people in that group were really excited about it and a lot of people submitted. That’s normal, and then the novelty wore off. Now it’s open to anyone worldwide and there’s steady growth.

More people submit in poetry months, I guess because poems are shorter. I’m happy that there has been a wide variety of winners and honourable mentions, including literary and genre fiction, poetry with vastly different styles, and creative nonfiction on various themes.

I try to have different judges every month so that personal aesthetic or thematic preferences don’t bias things too much. I think it’s working so far! I’ve even nominated a few winners for Best of the Net. I guess what I’ve noticed about the winning entries is that they are all excellent!

“[The contest judges] look at a variety of factors, including the skill level of writing, how much the piece grabs their interest or how creative it is, if the structure works, if the entry is polished, and things like that. For poetry, they also look at the overall idea and theme, as well as sensory or evocative use of language."

WOW: The monthly contest also has a pretty unique format for the industry—a $5 entry fee is almost unheard of. Getting feedback on your entry whether you win or lose is also rare. Plus, the winner gets half the pot with the remainder paying judges and administration costs. Tell us a little about how you decided on this format, and why you continue to use it. 

Marion: I think writers deserve to be paid. But I wanted to make this whole project sustainable for myself, too. So, I hit on this model for the contest. There’s always a fund to draw from to pay writers, judges, website costs, JotForm subscription, etc. As a writer myself, I know how invaluable personalized feedback can be. I don't want Off Topic to just be another publisher; I mean it when I say that I am trying to build a community of readers and writers. I also feel that judges will think hard about a piece on its own terms when they have to provide explicit feedback.

WOW: What are contest judges looking for in submissions? What’s your judging criteria?

Marion: The judges are given a rubric depending on that month’s format (poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction). They look at a variety of factors, including the skill level of writing, how much the piece grabs their interest or how creative it is, if the structure works, if the entry is polished (free of typos and other errors), and things like that. For poetry, they also look at the overall idea and theme, as well as sensory or evocative use of language.

WOW: It sounds like you put a lot of time and energy into every element of Off Topic—especially the community building aspect. Time and energy many writers would rather put into their own writing. Does running Off Topic contribute too, or cost your life as a writer and a creative? How does being a writer impact the way you approach running Off Topic?

Marion: Both, for sure. I have met so many amazing writers through Off Topic, some of whom have become friends. There’s a Facebook group for Off Topic, which works as a little writer community, as well as including readers, which I think is a rare combination. Writers often meet other writers, but it can be hard to invite readers into the fold. So I’m trying to connect us all. Readers enjoy seeing behind the scenes too. But the amount of time and energy I put into Off Topic does eat into my creative energy and output (plus I have non-Off Topic work to do). Reading through hundreds and hundreds of submissions saps my brain, so it can be hard for me to work on my own stuff. On the other hand, I am grateful for the insight into what people are writing about and how people write. It’s easier for me to know what’s a common or tired trope if I’ve seen it in my inbox a hundred times. And the range of styles inspires me to try new things.

“Joining a writerly community helps you take your own work seriously: other people are doing it too! Maybe we’re all nuts for wanting to write, but at least we can be nuts together!"

WOW: That definitely sounds like a lot to read and consider in addition to thinking of your own writing! Plus, in addition to writing and running Off Topic, you are also a PhD student, an Academic, an editor for hire. How do you balance Off Topic with all your other jobs and initiatives?

Marion: Heh, balance. The pandemic threw a monkey wrench in my PhD progress. That’s when I started Off Topic seriously. Now I’m back into PhD mode and it is difficult. I’m planning not to launch any new chapbook or anthology calls once I get Wayward & Upward, Home, and Exhaustion off my plate. The editing is my day job, the thing that pays the bills (and also a way to learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t, and why). I do everything part-time, and it adds up to more than a full-time job. I’m glad that some projects are coming to a resting point. Once I clear a few things away, I will be able to refocus entirely on a handful of things instead of a dozen. I don’t glorify busyness or overwork, for myself or anyone else.

WOW: Yes, it seems everyone feels busy and overworked these days—and we all have tasks we like and dislike on our to do lists. What are your favorite and least favorite parts of running Off Topic?

Marion: My favorite part is reading submissions, although it can get a bit overwhelming because of the sheer volume. But I am an avid reader anyway and I feel privileged to set eyes on works that are not publicly available! It also gives me a ton of joy to tell people they’ve won the contest or been selected for a publication. Least favorite is sending out rejection letters (nobody likes receiving them, including me, even though it’s entirely necessary when I’ve received 500 submissions for 15 slots). And the tedious stuff: creating items in the online bookstore or writing contracts or creating submission forms or mailing list content. Bleh.

WOW: 500 submissions. That’s a lot! Is that a typical number of submissions you receive per contest? 

Marion: The contest varies month to month. I think the most I’ve received for that was in the dozens, not hundreds. But the open calls for anthology and chapbook submissions have been over 500 pretty much every time.

“I like to think Off Topic’s publications reflect a sense of interconnection and diversity in its broadest sense."

WOW: I feel like we have a good sense of Off Topic now, and want to hear a little more about yourself and Jennifer. You are both citizens of the world and have lived and worked in many different places. How has that influenced Off Topic?

Marion: That’s an interesting question! One way that it influences me is that I love receiving pieces from people outside of North America. There’s a lot of great work in North America, but also in the rest of the world. Africa is particularly close to my heart, since I lived in Benin for five years as a child. One of the Poetry Box poems was by a Nigerian poet and spoke beautifully about talking drums—how could I not choose it? Jennifer doesn’t do anything on the editorial side, but certainly her own writing resonated with me because of our shared experiences of being “too foreign for here, too foreign for home,” as the saying goes. And of course living as white people in Africa, although our lives have been different in obvious and important ways: she is actually African and I am not; she lived in the south and I lived in the west; and so on. Zimbabwe and Benin are as far apart as Austria and Saudi Arabia, so there are many differences. But we both have transnational lines crisscrossing our lives and we are each connected to people in several countries. I like to think Off Topic’s publications reflect a sense of interconnection and diversity in its broadest sense.

WOW: The interconnection and diversity are definitely reflected in Off Topic. So, for anyone reading this who may want to join the community, do you have any advice regarding submitting or getting involved in another way?

Marion: Just submit! What’s there to lose? (That’s my advice in general, not just for Off Topic.) And don’t get discouraged if your work doesn’t land right away. I read and love a lot of submissions but simply can’t publish it all. (Also, read and follow the submission guidelines for the project you’re submitting to; I’m amazed by how many people sent me fiction for the nonfiction anthology Standing Up or work about how terrible war is—it is—when the theme was, well, standing up.) Believe me if I say that I like your work. Even if your writing isn’t quite there yet, we’re all on a writing journey. If we keep writing, we will improve. This is one reason I offer affordable online workshops too. I learn as much from them as anybody else! I’m a writer too. I know how hard it can be to send your work out to someone, especially a stranger. Know that I really do love reading every piece and I will treat your words gently. If you aren’t ready to submit, there’s always the Facebook group and the mailing list. Make yourself a cup of tea and lurk for a while, see what you think. I once told a fellow writer how many hundreds of people submit to my little micropress. They could hardly believe the numbers, because they only knew two other writers. Joining a writerly community helps you take your own work seriously: other people are doing it too! Maybe we’re all nuts for wanting to write, but at least we can be nuts together!

My thanks to Marion Lougheed, Editor-in-Chief of Off Topic Publishing, for her time spent chatting with me. I'm exciting to see what Off Topic does next!

Marion shared some great advice for anyone interested in submitting to Off Topic—or to any of the other calls you might find in the WOW! Newsletter. Submit. Try not to get discouraged. Follow the submission guidelines. Keep writing. Take training. Make yourself a cup of tea. Find community. Believe in your work.

Every year, Poetry International gives a prize of $1,000 and publication in Poetry International for a single poem. Editors of Poetry International will judge each submission. Submit up to 3 poems with your entry fee. Fee: $15

Emerson wrote “every word was once a poem.” What word inspires a poem in you in 2022? Delight or enlighten us. One poem will win $100 and publication in WWPH Writes in our December 23rd issue. Runner-ups will be awarded $50.00. Our second annual holiday special issue will be judged by Brandel France de Bravo. Open to writers living in Washington, D.C. Maryland and Virginia. No fee.

This competition is open to unpublished poems of any length, on any subject. Your entry fee allows you to submit up to three poems. Prizes include: 1st: £2,000; 2nd: £500; 3rd: £250. The four winners, plus sixteen additional finalists will have their poems published in the March issue of Mslexia. Fee: £10.00

Erasure poetry begins with an existing piece of text. Letters, words and punctuation are removed—or erased. What is left behind is a new stand-alone poem, one that both complements and gives new meaning to the Erasure Text. The Erasure Text for the 2022 Geist Erasure Poetry Contest is an excerpt from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, published by L.C. Page & Co. in 1908. The ONLY RULE is: do not change the order of words or let­ters. You can com­bine left over words and let­ters how­ever you see fit, just as long as they appear in the same order as in the orig­i­nal text. There is no word limit. First prize: $500; Second: $300; Third: $200. All win­ning entries will be pub­lished in Geist. More than one prize per cat­e­gory may be awarded. Fee: $20

Joy Bale Boone (1912-2002) was an American poet best known for her devotion to the arts. Born in Chicago, where she received inspiration from

poet Harriet Monroe, Boone spent most of her life in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. She was active in the women's liberation movement, having formed the League of Women Voters in Hardin County, KY in 1944. Her most significant work was The Storm's Eye: A Narrative in Verse Celebrating Cassius Marcellus Clay, Man of Freedom 1810–1903. She served as Kentucky's Poet Laureate from 1997-1998. The Heartland Review Press is hosting this contest with a $750 grand prize. Submit no more than three (3) original, unpublished poems. Guest judge is Bernard Clay. Fee: $10

The winner of our annual Editors' Prize in Poetry will receive $1,000 and publication. Winners will be announced in January. Poets may submit up to four poems that do not exceed ten total pages. Please put all the poems in one document. No previously published work, including self-published work, will be accepted. Fee: $12

The winner will receive a $1,000 Prize and publication in a future print issue of New Ohio Review. Additionally, any poem that receives a first-place vote from one of our judges is guaranteed to be published on New Ohio Review. These will be "Honorable Mentions in the NORward Prize." Pieces that are not selected by our judges will still be considered for publication in our print issues (and our online editions). You may submit up to 6 single-spaced pages of poetry per submission entry. Entry fee comes with a 1-year subscription. Fee: $21

Submit one to three poems on any topic. Altogether, the poems should total 108 lines or less. Poems must contain meter (beginners and students may simply count syllables). Rhyme and other traditional techniques are encouraged as well, but not required. First prize winner receives $2,000, publication on the website, and their journal. Fee: $20

The Wilder Series Book Prize is open to women over 50 years of age (established or emerging poets) and includes a $1000 prize, publication by Two Sylvias Press, 20 copies of the winning book, and a vintage, art nouveau pendant. Please submit an original, unpublished full-length manuscript of poetry (no translations or previously self-published books). Individual poems may have been previously published in journals, magazines, anthologies, and chapbooks, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished. Length: 48 - 80 pages of poems. ​All manuscripts will be considered for publication. Fee: $24

Arc accepts unsolicited submissions of previously unpublished poems, on any subject, in any form. Submissions received before December 31, will be considered for the Summer 2023 issue. Submissions must not exceed three poems. The magazine pays: $50 per page for poetry or prose published in the magazine. Fee: $2

Submit your poem as often as you like. Poems can be rhyming or non-rhyming, although they find that non-rhyming poetry reads better. Prizes include: 1st prize: $350, 2nd prize: $200, 3rd prize: $100. In addition, the winning poems will be displayed on their website. No fee.

The theme for issue #11 is The Outsider. As with every issue, poems submitted do not need to follow the prompt/theme. A single $100 award will be given for an outstanding poem. Poems can be any style, but preferably non-rhyming. Submit up to five poems, each no longer than 64 lines. No fee.

"We are seeking submissions for pieces that breathe freshness to the form. We are interested in previously unpublished prose ranging from 1,000 - 4,000 words." All entries will be considered for publication. Prize: $1000 and publication in our next forthcoming issue. Fee: $10

The Masters Review hosts and annual Novel Excerpt Contest each fall. They’re looking for excerpts that show off a sense of style, with a clear grasp on craft: narrative, character, and plot. Choose wisely! Your excerpt can come from any point in your completed or in-progress novels, but a synopsis should not be required for understanding the excerpt. 2022 judge is Charmaine Craig. Winner receives $3000, publication and consultation with an agent. Second and third place prizes ($300 / $200, publication and agent feedback). Excerpts under 6000 words. Excerpts from unpublished novels only. Fee: $20

The winner of the annual Omnidawn Fabulist Fiction Chapbook / Novelette Contest wins a $1,000 prize, publication of the perfect bound pocket series chapbook / novelette with a full color cover by Omnidawn, 20 free copies of the winning chapbook / novelette, and extensive publicity through social media, our subscriber lists and more. For this contest, Fabulist Fiction includes magic realism and literary forms of fantasy, science fiction, horror, fable, and myth. Stories can be primarily realistic, with elements of non-realism, or primarily, or entirely non-realistic. Keep the manuscript length 7,500 and 17,500 words, consisting of either one story or multiple stories. Fee: $18

Entries for this contest will include a one to two sentence book summary followed by no more than 1,000 words from the beginning of your book. 1st prize = $650, 2nd prize = $350, 3rd prize = $100, 4th prize = $100, 5th prize = $100. Winning entries will be workshopped in our live webinar by our judge to help writers understand what worked and what could be improved to make it submission-ready. Fee: $19

Entries must be short stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words. First Prize: $2,500, publication in LitMag and agency review by Nat Sobel of Sobel Weber Associates, Lisa Bankoff of Bankoff Collaborative, Erin Harris and Sonali Chanchani of Folio Literary Management, Jenny Bent of The Bent Agency, David Forrer of Inkwell Management, Monika Woods of Triangle House, and Emily Forland of Brandt & Hochman. Finalists: Three finalists will receive $100 each. All finalists will be considered possible agency review and publication. Fee: $20

$1,500 and publication in Boulevard awarded to the winning story by a writer who has not yet published a book of fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction with a nationally distributed press. They accept works up to 8,000 words. Fee: $16

The Vincent Brothers Review editors eagerly seek entries to our “Portals” Short Story Contest. First Prize of $1,000, second prize of $500, third prize of $200, and two honorable-mention prizes of $150 each will be awarded to the top four selections. The theme for the upcoming contest is “Portals.” No maximum word length is set, but please note that the editors usually prefer stories not longer than 8,000 words. Fee: $10

This is a flash fiction competition where the prize money truly reflects the skill required to encapsulate an entire story in just 500 words. The competition is international and welcomes non-UK entrants. Prizes include: First: £300, Second: £200, Third: £100. Fee: £5

Judged by Evan James, author of Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe and I've Been Wrong Before. The Danahy Fiction Prize is an award of $1,000 and publication in Tampa Review given annually for a previously unpublished work of short fiction. Submissions must be original, previously unpublished short fiction between 1000 - 5000 words. Fee: $20, which includes a one-year subscription to Tampa Review.

Stories may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted. Winner receives $1,000 and a bronze medallion. Finalists receive $100. Winner and finalists are published in both the online and annual print editions of The Lascaux Review. Length should not exceed 10,000 words. All genres and styles are welcome. Fee: $15

Developed by former Editor-in-Chief Marissa Schwalm, the prize is awarded annually. Creative non-fiction submissions should be previously unpublished, original work shorter than 5,000 words. Winner receives $500 and publication in the winter/spring issue. Fee: $19

The Gabriele Rico Challenge for Nonfiction recognizes outstanding works of nonfiction, awarding $1,333 to the author of the winning entry. They are looking for creative nonfiction, such as personal essays and narratives, not scholarly papers or book reviews. All works should be stand-alone essays, not chapters of a longer work. They do not accept previously published work. Submissions up to 5,000 words. Fee: $20, which includes a copy of the latest edition of Reed Magazine.

"It's no secret that the mind and body has a strong connectivity. In our everyday lives, we may experience back pain, arthritis, hip dysplasia, etc. This physical pain and discomfort can affect us mentally as well. We may experience stress, anxiety, loss of confidence, stagnant thought, among other ailments to the mind. Similarly, if we're stressed or anxious, we may be more attune to our physical pain and discomfort. We're interested in reading any nonfiction you may have that deals with the relationship between the mind and body." Pieces should be between 1500-5000 words, with a maximum of two pieces submitted per person. Fee: $5

"For our 2022 Winter Solstice edition of Farmer-ish, we want you to think about Solstice Hygge. The Solstice is such an important day in nature and for farmers and homesteaders--as well as our animals. What are some ways we honor it? How can we bring a little Hygge into our lives as we head into the long darkness here in the northern hemisphere? What traditions keep us cozy? How do we take advantage of the winter to rest while still caring for our animals and planning for the growing season to come? We are looking for essays, how-to pieces, recipes, poetry, farmer profiles, and more that celebrate the warmth and coziness of the indoors while honoring the season outdoors. Winter Solstice is really when we plan for the upcoming year, take our rest, and honor the return of the light." Essays generally run 800 to 2,000 words. Pay is $25 per piece. Fee: $3

Please submit creative nonfiction up to 6,000 words. The writers of the three winning pieces will receive: $1,000 each; publication in CRAFT, each with an introduction by Ingrid Rojas Contreras; publication of an author's note (craft essay) to accompany the piece; and a set of six titles of Graywolf’s The Art Of series. The two writers chosen in the editors’ choice round will receive: $200 each; publication in CRAFT, each with an introduction by the editorial team; and publication of an author’s note (craft essay) to accompany the piece. Fee: $20

Essay Press and the University of Washington Bothell’s MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics Program are hosting a 2022 Essay Book Contest to be judged by Amaranth Borsuk. "We’re particularly excited to read manuscripts that extend or challenge the formal possibilities of prose, including but not limited to: lyric essays and prose poems or poetics; experimental biography and autobiography; innovative approaches to journalism, interdisciplinary historiography, criticism, scholarship and philosophy. Simultaneous submissions, multiple submissions, collaborative manuscripts, digital and hybridized text/art manuscripts are all welcome." Manuscripts should be 70-200 pages, though no manuscript will be denied consideration on account of being too short or too long. Along with book publication by Essay Press, the contest winner will receive an award of $1,000 and a reading at the University of Washington Bothell. Fee: $20

Send us your best and your strangest and the work you're most excited about. And everything in between. They have no limitation on form or subject matter, although please familiarize yourself with their policy on harmful language. Please keep all fiction and nonfiction submissions below 5,000 words. For poems, submit up to 3 poems in a single document. They do accept flash fiction and short creative nonfiction, but please send these pieces individually. Micros (stories or prose below 500 words) can be submitted with up to three in one entry. Fee: $3

Briarpatch is accepting submissions of original, unpublished writing and photography for their 12th annual Writing in the Margins contest. This year the categories are creative non-fiction, poetry, and documentary photography. "We want writing and photos from the edges – from new creators who have something important to say, or from longtime creators who can show us a new way of seeing things." Winning entries in each category will receive cash prizes of $500 and will be published in Briarpatch, an award-winning, nationally distributed magazine of culture and politics. Runners-up in each category will receive cash prizes of $150 and will be published online. Fee: $25

Book of Matches is currently accepting submissions of short stories, essays, poetry, and works in translation. Send no more than three poems or six pages of poetry. Works over 2,100 are rarely accepted for publication, although micro fiction and micro nonfiction (100 to 500 words) will be considered. No fee.

We're looking for novels, short story collections, or poetry collections, or a mix of all three that fall under the umbrella of Magical Realism and Fabulism. We are especially interested in collections that dissect in new and clever ways the effect of folklore, myth, and fairy tale on identity. It is open to works between 45,000-90,000 words for prose, and 60 pages and up for poetry. Prize: $500 dollars, publication, and standard contract rate of 10% on all sales for the first 1000 copies sold, and 15% for all copies after. Fee: $20

Decolonial Passage’s second issue asks submitters to “present a sensory description of food — show us what it looks, tastes, smells, feels, sounds like — while also examining how food intersects with power and powerlessness.” Send up to two poems, flash up to 1,000 words, or longer prose (fiction, essays, creative nonfiction) up to 2,500 words. No fee.

"This year, we at FOLIO have goosebumps in welcoming our very first all-horror issue…Please do not send work which upholds the “typical” horror tropes. We are looking for high-literary taste and atmosphere. We prefer no fantasy or hard sci-fi." Please send us previously unpublished stories that terrorize, creative essays that will make us shiver in the best way, poems and art about your version and vision of fear and disgust. Submit one fiction story (5000 words max) in a document, submit nonfiction no more than, 4500 words in length, and up to 5 poems (8 pages maximum) in one document. No fee.

Submit stories up to 800 words with the theme: magic medicine. Magic medicine could be a lover’s touch, a wonder drug, a new law, a weapon, a prayer, any or all of the above and much, much more. They are accepting both fiction and creative nonfiction. First Prize: $1500. Fee: $8

Submit flash fiction and creative nonfiction between 101 and 1,000 words. Poetry should be no more than 30 lines. You can also submit microfiction, micropoetry, and micro-creative nonfiction up to 100 words or less. No fee.

“We are a journal preoccupied with history—cultural, political, geographical, personal—and how each interacts with the other to mold our experience. Adolescent blunders, dental records, the archaic origins of long-held or long-lost traditions: we want to know all of it. We are looking for work that spills secrets and wipes the dust off of old memories. We want honesty. We want an education.” Send up to five poems or a work of nonfiction up to 3,000 words. No fee.

Send your weird, wobbly wordwork: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Payment is $10 per poem, $10 per flash piece (under 1,000 words), $25 for short fiction and essays (over 1,000 words). No fee.

"For fiction & creative nonfiction prose (and we think of the prose poem as such), we have a word-count limit: 600." Their response time is generally 1-5 days. Also, their acceptance rate is currently about 2% of submissions. They pay writers $50 per accepted piece and signed contract. No fee.

The Goldilocks Zone appears wherever conditions make a planet habitable. Sunspot Lit is looking for the single short story, novel or novella excerpt, artwork, graphic novel, or poem that combines excellence in craft with reader or audience appeal, and thus falls into the Goldilocks Zone. Literary and genre works accepted. Fiction and nonfiction submissions are eligible to receive feedback for an additional fee. First prize is $200 plus publication. Runners-up and finalists are offered publication. No restrictions on theme or category. Maximum of 2,500 words for short stories or nonfiction, 24 lines for poetry, and 8 pages for graphic novels. Fee: $9.50

Touchstone Literary Magazine is seeking fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that provides the touchstones for your own life. Submit a maximum of two essays between 1500 and 5000 words each. They accept short stories (6,000 words max) or flash fiction (less than 1,000 words). Submit up to three poems (not exceeding 5 pages). Fee: $3

They consider one prose or possibility piece, and up to three poems. They consider prose pieces no longer than 4,000 words and do not discriminate between fiction and nonfiction. Short stories, flash fictions, essays, interviews: all are welcome. Genre fiction, though, is not. Fee: $3

Coffin Bell is an online journal for dark literature. They're looking for flash (up to 1,500 words), short stories (up to 7,500 words), and poetry of any length. Please send up to 5 poems, 5 flashes, or 1 short story per submission. They are looking for creative nonfiction, essays, and short works of criticism that deal with one or more “dark” elements, and have no firm word count. Their theme for their next issue is "familiars." No fee.

For their print publication, LitMag publishes fiction, creative nonfiction including essays on literature, art, and culture, music; biography, or memoir up to 15,000 words. For their online publication, submit fiction and creative nonfiction up to 4,000 words. Submit up to five poems for either online or print. Fee: $4

Submit stories, microstories, nonfiction, and poetry. Please submit no more than five poems, or one short story (no more than 2000 words), or two short-short stories (less than 500 words is ideal), or one creative non-fiction piece (no more than 3000 words). No fee.

No restrictions on genre. Submit fiction or nonfiction, as long as it tells a good story. The story cannot exceed 4,500 words. $1,000 prize package will be divvied up like so: $500 first place, $300 second place, $200 third place. The winning story will be featured on Story Unlikely's website. All three placing stories will be published in the monthly issue. No fee.

The theme for their eighth annual issue is “Lines.” Fiction: Short stories and stand-alone novel excerpts not in excess of 5,000 words. Flash Fiction: Up to three pieces of flash or microfiction, no more than 1,000 words. Nonfiction: Memoir, personal essays, and creative nonfiction, 5,000 word limit. Poetry: Up to three poems of any form and in traditional or experimental styles. Translations are accepted as well. Stage & Screen: One-act plays, scenes, or short film and screenplay excerpts not in excess of 15 pages. Film: Short films in live-action narrative, documentary, or animation up to 15 minutes in length. Please include a brief summary and credits list in the cover letter of your submission. Experimental Narratives: Whether it’s digital poetics, a video, or a transmedia, genre-bending piece, if it tells a good story, creates compelling characters, and/or tickles our literary senses, we want it. Visual Art: Up to five pieces of art and/or photography per submission. Comics: Comics should be self-contained, up to three pages per piece, with no more than three pieces per submission. Pay is $50 for accepted work. Fee: $3.50

Girls Right the World is a literary journal inviting young, female-identified writers and artists, ages 14–21, to submit work for consideration for the sixth annual issue. "We believe girls’ voices transform the world for the better. We accept poetry, prose, and visual art of any style or theme. We ask to be the first to publish your work in North America; after publication, the rights return to you." Send your best art and/or writing, in English or English translation, to girlsrighttheworld@gmail.com. Please include a note mentioning your age, where you’re from, and a bit about your submission. No fee.

iō Literary Journal is seeking work for their open access ebook. Prompt: "It’s 2022, and we've seen a gradual return to 'normal life' and all the hardships that accompany it. Some challenges seem familiar to the way they were pre-COVID while others are completely different now. Despite such adversity, human perseverance and creativity are illuminating the future and further allowing us to push past the status quo and reject what society and institutions impose on us as normal. How have our experiences changed how we approach our lives? What have we become desensitized to or increasingly aware of? Tell us your experiences navigating this shift." Selected work will be showcased in an online, open-access ebook published on our website. Submit no more than 3 pieces, up to 15 pages max per writing submission. Fee: $3

BLF Press is looking for submissions for an upcoming anthology, Black Joy Unbound, which will be “a multi-genre collection that encompasses a broad spectrum of literary writing on Black joy.” Both emerging and experienced writers are encouraged to submit and editors are especially interested in writing from Black queer writers of all gender identities and orientations. Pay is $75 per piece and a copy of the anthology. No fee.

Cutleaf in partnership with All About Beer is thrilled to offer a call for submissions for beer-related writing. Share with us your short stories, personal essays, poems, or hybrid work in which beer is featured. Cutleaf will pay from $100 to $300 for published prose, and from $50 to $200 for published poetry. Tentative publication date of their beer-themed issue mid-late September 2023. No fee.

Deadlines: November 30 (Fiction) and January 31 (nonfiction). Our favorite writing community offers quarterly contests judged blindly with multiple cash prizes and more for 20 winners, up to $1,350 (fiction) and $1,175 plus a gift certificate to CreateWriteNow (nonfiction), an affordable critique option, and a 300-entry limit on each contest. Previously published work is accepted! What’s not to love? This season's guest judge is Literary Agent Savannah Brooks with KT Literary Agency. Fee: $10 (Flash Fiction - SALE! $5 through November 30) and $12 (Nonfiction - SALE! $6 through November 3).

In honor of the winter solstice on December 21, Coalesce Community is seeking submissions for its Winter Solstice 2022 issue. Submit your creative non-fiction, poetry, and photo essays that share your personal human story.

The truth is stranger than fiction, or so the saying goes. There are some things we’d simply never believe if we encountered them in a novel.

But what if you’re trying to write what you know and basing a story on a real-life event? What happens when that fails? Is there a way to salvage the piece? Or better still, could you weave real-life details into fiction in a way that would enhance and elevate the story?

Even if you aren’t writing from real life, the techniques below can help you enrich your fictional worlds and draw your readers into your stories.

Worldbuilding isn’t just for fantasy and science fiction. Often what’s missing in pieces of fictionalized real life is adequate worldbuilding.

Sometimes, you’re simply too close to the subject matter to see what’s missing. You can see the dust from the gravel road floating in the air, taste the grit of it against your lips, and watch the taillights of your ex’s Mustang fade into the distance.

But can your reader?

You know there’s an endless traffic light on Fifth and Main and that the downtown skyway always smells like marijuana, the scent so thick you worry your boss will think you’ve been indulging before work.

But does your reader?

Don’t forget the people in your world. Who they are and what they want. As with fictional characters, real-life ones have agendas, motivations, desires, and dislikes.

But does your reader know what they are?

These details can get stuck in a writer’s head. Solution? Put the piece away for a bit or ask a trusted friend what’s missing, and then weave those details into your story.

Because, ultimately, inadequate worldbuilding may mean your reader is unable to suspend disbelief.

Need to build a more robust world? Read articles or flip through a writing craft book on science fiction and fantasy worldbuilding for inspiration. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has an excellent resource for worldbuilding.

If you’re fictionalizing an event from your life but setting it in the here and now, ask yourself:

Does it make sense?

This can be tricky for writers to navigate. Our world changes so quickly these days. Keeping the event evergreen goes beyond surface details.

When I wrote The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet, I needed a high school curriculum where my main character could be failing speech class. Initially, I based the academic program on my son’s high school. By the time he graduated, the curriculum had changed. Now, as my daughter gets ready to graduate, it has changed yet again.

No two high schools will ever be the same. With a little research and feedback, I invented a curriculum that’s specific enough to serve the story but isn’t a copy of an actual program that could date the narrative.

Even better? I included those worldbuilding details into the story during a highly uncomfortable parent-teacher conference.

While the truth may set you free, it may also constrain you—at least when it comes to fiction. One of the most challenging things to do when fictionalizing real life is to let go of what really happened.

When story events line up too closely to real life, there’s no room for the reader to use her imagination. Worse, the reader may feel there are pieces of your story that are missing. Chances are, she’s right.

It can be easy to march lockstep through your real-life narrative without considering that stories—all stories—need structure.

Your real-life story may not have a dark moment.

But could you invent one?

The ending may rely on a coincidence.

But could you weave something into the beginning to foreshadow events?

How do you decide what to change? One of my favorite techniques is using the objection. Identify what your workshop or critique partner objected to, and work it into your story.

Sometimes, this is as easy as having a secondary character voice the objection and having the main character and story events address it.

Or it might be more subtle than that. Perhaps you need to work backward and plant clues, so the ending lands. Maybe you need to incorporate crucial pieces of backstory, so the reader understands the main character’s motivation.

If you need some structure for your story, consider the hero’s journey. The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler is easy to read and accessible. Or your story may demand something along the lines of The Virgin’s Promise by Kim Hudson.

Even revisiting the classic three-act structure may spark ideas for elements missing in your story. Or perhaps using a fairy tale can help you structure your real-life narrative.

Don’t be constrained by the truth. If you’re genuinely writing fiction (rather than nonfiction), give yourself permission to experiment with story events. Beyond fixing structural issues, by going off script, you may also end up revealing the emotional truth of the piece.

One of the best things about using real life to create fiction is the wealth of information and detail you have to work with. As readers, we believe a story when we can feel the dirt beneath our fingernails, taste the soil, and smell the scent of the tomato plant on our skin.

Smell and taste are especially evocative but often neglected. Adding them in is one way to enrich a scene. Make the senses work together and do double duty: the brightness of the sun against your eyelids and the warmth of it on your skin.

Pepper your story (real life or fictional) with those true-to-life senses for verisimilitude. One thing I remember distinctly from my inauspicious stint on the cheerleading squad was how heavy those darn pom-poms were. (These were 80s pom-poms; like our hair, they were huge.)

So I used that in The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading:

One technique for drawing your reader into the story and establishing verisimilitude is to use all five senses within the first one hundred words (give or take) of your story. Engaging all five of the senses early on will ground your reader in the place of the story. But there’s one more sense to consider.

The sense of time.

When are you in your story? Is it present day? Ten years ago? Time matters. Time shifts. Time can wreak havoc on your present-day story.

Recently, I read a story where the main character was sitting in a restaurant booth by the phone. For five seconds, I didn’t understand what the author meant until I realized that the story had been written more than twenty years ago, and the phone wasn’t a cell phone—it was a payphone.

It’s been ages since I’ve seen a payphone in the back of a restaurant, and the reference threw me out of the story.

Plant clues in your story about the time your character inhabits, and not just the year or decade, but the time of day, the season, and even the time in their lives.

If your real-life story isn’t working in first person, consider narrating from another point of view. You may be too close to the events in your story, or your worldview may be too elusive. If you’re dealing with events that make you feel vulnerable, you may be holding back (understandably so).

Step outside yourself and use a different point of view, especially if you’re grappling with the narrative. Think beyond the antagonist or the main character’s best friend. What happens if you tell the story from the family pet’s point of view? The faithful teddy bear’s? The kitchen table where all the family discussions are held?

You can try this as an exercise as a way to open up the narrative and then incorporate the results into your first-person story. Or you may find that choosing an unexpected narrator can engage the reader and add surprising depth to a piece. This technique is an excellent way to create pieces of flash fiction based on your own experience.

For certain pieces, you may need to let go of the “I” altogether. You may need to establish distance and perspective by giving the real-life event to a character unlike yourself.

Can you build a story that way or perhaps conceive of a new one? What if you were to make one significant change to the “I” character of your piece, so that character is no longer you? How does that alter the story and open it up?

I used this technique in The Fine Art of Holding Your Breath. While I still used first person and gave the character of MacKenna’s mother most of my own experiences, I made one crucial change.

I made her a mother. I was childless when I deployed to Desert Storm, but revisiting those events through the eyes of a mother helped me get out of my own way.

Making this character a mother meant she was no longer me. It meant I had to dig deep and revisit my experiences through her eyes. It meant considering who this new person was and what her hopes and dreams were. The change helped me let go of what really happened and craft a narrative that worked.

I grew up in the same town as Maud Hart Lovelace, author of the Betsy-Tacy books. I devoured these books and reread them long into my teens and as an adult. Maud set the series in her hometown of Mankato and based the books on her own life. She died in 1980; and while I never had the chance to meet her, I loved her and her books so much.

When I started writing, I looked to Maud for inspiration.

In The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading, I took a real-life event (making the varsity cheerleading squad during my senior year) and set the story in a fictionalized version of our hometown. For Maud, it was Deep Valley. I went with Prairie Stone.

Take that real-life event or place and give it a makeover. Setting your story in your hometown can help with verisimilitude; fictionalizing your hometown can enhance the overall story from characterization to the plot.

You can blend two of your favorite places to build a new one (you might even want to draw a map).

This technique cuts across all genres. When writing fantasy, science fiction, or paranormal stories, tap into those real-life places and things that have emotional resonance for you. In my Coffee and Ghosts series, much of the action revolves around the Springside Pancake House, a blend of a couple of my favorite restaurants.

The technique works for characterization as well. Blend traits from a few real-life people into one character. Remind yourself that antagonists have hopes, dreams, and should be fully realized by giving them a name that has fond memories or associations. (Be careful with this one—you don’t want someone thinking that the villain is based on them.)

You may have a novel’s worth of material to work with, but a novel may not be the best form for the story.

Try an entirely new form. Select a moment and build a piece of flash fiction around the event. Take it a step further with the Rashomon effect, where you narrate the same event from multiple perspectives.

If you usually write in the past tense, experiment with the present tense. Consider framing your narrative with a character from the future who discovers your story as part of a time capsule. Can you tell your story as a series of letters or fictional journal entries? What if you told it in a series of before and after vignettes?

Breaking out of the linear timeline might help you break open your story.

Another thing I’ve grappled with when writing about my military experience is figuring out how much detail the (civilian) reader needs and providing that without boring them. I have two trunk novels and countless pieces about my time in the Army that simply don’t work.

In The Fine Art of Holding Your Breath, I tried journal entries and letters. Then, at long last, I took my cue from the poets of World War I and crafted my military experience into free verse poetry.

Can you cut the extraneous detail until all you have is the core of your story? Is it possible that’s all it needs? Sometimes less really is more.

Trying new forms and taking a radical approach can be freeing and fun. You might end up with brand new stories and pieces to send out or simply discover a new way into the material of your life.

Letting go of “but it really happened that way” doesn’t mean letting go of the story you want to tell. All it means is looking at your life and events through a different lens. To quote James Joyce, “In the particular is contained the universal.”

We need to weave these real-life details, emotions, and events into all of our writing, be it fiction or nonfiction. We need the particulars to help us express our universal truths.

In other words, it’s real life, only better.

Here we are at the end of another year. We are happy to share these success stories with you as we are every time we write this column. Below, you’ll read about people publishing their books, winning contests, first publications, and more. Don’t forget to share your success with us. If you miss our call out on social media, then please email them to margo (at) wow-womenonwriting.com and please cc margolynndill (at) gmail.com. Put Success Stories in the subject line!

We love to present this wonderful news to you, so take some time to check out your fellow writers’ success. And as you go into this busy holiday month and think about 2023, we hope you find some time to write and share your words with the world.

Barbara Barth writes, “Finally finished my Christmas novella. I've been working on it since 2016. Self-published in October and can't wait. I'm taking it on blog tour with WOW! starting Nov. 28. A Wingman for Christmas: A Sweet Water Novella.”

Mary Jo Thayer, Author writes, “Published for the first time as a grandmother, my debut novel Close to the Soul was a #1 Amazon New Release best seller several times in its debut month. Contest awards include the Winner of the American Fiction Awards in the category of Christian Inspirational and a finalist in the Religious Fiction category. It was also a finalist in the IAN Book of the Year Awards in Christian/Religious. As an author, I’ve made podcast appearances on Because Fiction, Author to Author, and Cross Word. I was also a TV guest for CMAX Media.”

Angela Acosta writes, “I was chosen as a finalist for the Dream Foundry Contest for Emerging Writers this month.”

Lynn Nicholas writes, “My first attempt at writing something crime related. Published on Flash Fiction Magazine's on Nov 11. Very pleased. ‘Knit One, Purl Two.’”

bhattacharyaindrani writes, “I have two published books in Bengali, write both in Bengali and English regularly. I have won the Jibananda Das award for translating famous Bangladesh poet Md Nurul Huda's poems into English arranged by The Antonym and Bhasha Samsad in June, 1922.”

blynngoodwin writes, “I publish 4 issues of Writer Advice, www.writeradvice.com, every year and have a new YA coming in 2023.”

chronicallycraptastic writes, “I wrote a piece that was recently published by a news and media outlet on the Isle of Man. It’s my first time being published, so I’m happy 😊. There’s a couple of minor references in it that might not make sense unless you’ve ever been there, so I tweaked those two bits and published the more generic version on my website.”

Rebirth: Real-Life Stories About What Happens When You Let Go and Let Life Lead by Kate Brenton

When life is calling, often we need only the space and the support to remember our way. Sometimes we lean into our expansion, and sometimes we bolt from our greatness. The biggest shock is that big change happens in small choices. In Rebirth you will find real-life stories of people who made courageous leaps, inspiring you to make your own. It’s time to step out of line and back into the spiral of life—that’s where the alchemy is. This book fits right into the side pocket of your bag + your life to inspire you as you read others’ stories of how they listened and learned to make embodied changes in their own lives.

(Giveaway ends December 4th)

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